Baldwin-Wallace pulls away from Lady Polar Bears 79-52

Dec. 8, 2007

By Gary Petit

BEREA — The Ohio Northern women's basketball team couldn't keep up with Baldwin-Wallace down the stretch and dropped its first OAC contest 79-52 Saturday afternoon in the Ursprung Gymnasium.

The loss drops the Polar Bears to 5-2 on the season and 2-1 in conference play. Baldwin-Wallace has now won two-straight OAC games and is 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the OAC.

Senior Leah Zimmerman was the only Polar Bear to reach double-figures with 10 points. Fellow senior Jenny Markle hit 3-of-4 three-point attempts and finished with nine points and a team-high six rebounds and four assists.

The Yellow Jackets were led by Ariel Bough with a game-high 16 points and eight boards. Selena E-Budge chipped in with 14, Courtnry Ritzler added 11 and guard Rachael Quiring finished with 10.

B-W came out of the gate on an 11-4 run on two jumpers by Bough but a three-pointer by junior Emily Culbertson sparked a 15-8 Polar Bear run to open up a 19-17 lead with 6:50 to play in the first half.

The Yellow Jackets closed the half on a 12-2 run and took a 29-21 lead into the locker room.

A three-pointer by Markle would cut the lead to six at 35-29 with 16:46 remaining but that would be as close as Northern would get the rest of the game.

B-W pushed the lead to 16 at 54-38 after an Amanda Mondrach three-ball with just under eight minutes to play and outscored ONU by nine points the rest of the game to seal a 79-52 victory.

The Yellow Jackets held a 40-28 rebounding edge and shot 46 percent from the floor while holding ONU to just 32 percent from the field.

The Polar Bears will look to rebound with a non-conference matchup against Ohio Wesleyan on Wednesday as part of a double-header with the men's team. The women will play at 5:30 pm followed by the men's game against Otterbein at 7:30 pm.